The Dow Chemical Company is a leading producer of plastics, chemicals, hydrocarbons, and agrochemicals. Dow was incorporated in 1897.[1] It is the largest chemical company in the U.S. and the largest in the world (along with ExxonMobil and behind BASF). It is one of the "Big 6" Biotech Corporations, along with BASF, Bayer, Dupont, Syngenta, and Monsanto (so called because they dominate the agricultural input market -- that is, they own the world’s seed, pesticide, and biotechnology industries).[2][3]

Dow also makes "performance plastics"; including engineering plastics, polyurethanes and materials for Dow Automotive. Other products include packaging materials such as its Styrofoam brand insulation; fibers, and films. It also makes chemicals like acrylic acid; commodity chemicals (chlor-alkalies and glycol) and agrochemicals. Its Hydrocarbons and Energy unit makes olefins and aromatics, raw materials for other chemicals. Dow also owns half of silicone products maker Dow Corning. [4]

Dow subsidiary Union Carbide was involved in the disaster in Bhopal, India and later in asbestos lawsuits.[5]

In 2011, the Dow Chemical Company reported $59,985,000,000 in total sales.[6]

This article is part of the Center for Media and Democracy's investigation of Pete Peterson's Campaign to "Fix the Debt." Please visit our main SourceWatch page on Fix the Debt.

About Fix the Debt

The Campaign to Fix the Debt is the latest incarnation of a decades-long effort by former Nixon man turned Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson to slash earned benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare under the guise of fixing the nation's "debt problem." Through a special report and new interactive wiki resource, the Center for Media and Democracy -- in partnership with the Nation magazine -- exposes the funding, the leaders, the partner groups, and the phony state "chapters" of this astroturf supergroup. Learn more at PetersonPyramid.org and in the Nation magazine.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Dow Chemical was a "Director" level sponsor of the 2011 and 2016 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual Conferences, which in 2010, equated to $10,000.[7][8] Dow Chemical was also a sponsor of the Louisiana Welcome Reception at the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting.[9] Dr. Daland R. Juberg, North American leader of the Human Health Assessment Group within Dow AgroSciences (Indianapolis, IN), spoke at the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force meeting of the 2011 ALEC Annual Meeting.[10]

About ALEC

ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

Environment and Health Controversies

Documents Contained at the Anti-Environmental Archives

Documents written by or referencing this person or organization are contained in the Anti-Environmental Archive, launched by Greenpeace on Earth Day, 2015. The archive contains 3,500 documents, some 27,000 pages, covering 350 organizations and individuals. The current archive includes mainly documents collected in the late 1980s through the early 2000s by The Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR), an organization that tracked the rise of the so called "Wise Use" movement in the 1990s during the Clinton presidency. Access the index to the Anti-Environmental Archives here.

Chemical Disaster in Bophal, India

On the night of December 3rd, 1984, thousands suffocated from 27 tons of methyl isocyanate that leaked out of Union Carbide’s pesticides plant . [11] At least 3,000 people were killed that night, several thousand more in the following nights, and yet more in the years to come. Twenty-five years later, the chemicals from the abandoned factory continue to seep into the ground and effects nearby survivors and their children.[12]

In 2001 Dow Chemical inherited the liabilities when it purchased Union Carbide. Union Carbide left the factory desolate and destroyed, ignoring their lease agreement with the state of Madhya Pradesh, that the land, when returned, be in a ‘habitable and usable condition.[13] Dow ignored the Polluter Pays principle, claiming that the Madhya Pradesh government should pay for the clean up. The company asserted that the $300 million in compensation paid by Union Carbide in 1989 should be funneled into cleanup efforts, rather than to affected individuals.[14]

Napalm

During the Vietnam War, Dow encountered boycotts against its end-consumer products because of its manufacture of napalm. [15]ZNet noted:

"Saran Wrap -The thin slice of plastic invaluable to our lives. Produced by Dow until consumers were looking for Dow products to boycott. Dow decided to get out of consumer products for this reason -- they sold off Saran Wrap -- and since just makes chemicals that make our consumer products.[16][17][18]

Dioxin

In 1978 Dr Richard J Kociba a scientist working for Dow Chemicals found overwhelming evidence that Dow's 2,3,7,8-TCDD herbicides (which contain dioxins) were dangerous, and published his report in Applied Pharmacology.

Before Love Canal had come to public notice, he had begun a series of three different life-time (2 year) animal studies feeding dioxins to male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Kociba found high rates of liver cancer in the female mice (but not the males) and he had microscope slides to prove it.
This triggered the scientific scare about dioxins (and later, their cousins, the furans) in herbicides -- not just in Agent Orange. Public concerns became exaggerated when the media over-reacted; and this was supplemented by the clumsy and frantic attempts by the chemical companies to throw doubt on their own research.

[Dow Chemicals rejected the Kociba findings. They then hired the 'greenwashing' PR firm, E Bruce Harrison , to run a campaign, discounting and confusing the findings. They later challenged Kociba's diagnosis of the cancers by mounting their own 'independent' committee of highly-paid consultants who reviewed the Kociba slides and found fewer 'confirmed' cancers -- which is why scientists don't like releasing their basic data; it just fuels the fires of organised attack.].

The first lawsuits were filed against Dow Chemicals and Monsanto over their sloppy production of Agent Orange resulting in Vietnam Veteran's dioxin. Then in March 1978, Eckardt C Beck, the local (Love Canal) Regional administrator for the EPA reported:

I visited the canal area at that time. Corroding waste-disposal drums could be seen breaking up through the grounds of backyards. Trees and gardens were turning black and dying. One entire swimming pool had been had been popped up from its foundation, afloat now on a small sea of chemicals. Puddles of noxious substances were pointed out to me by the residents. Some of these puddles were in their yards, some were in their basements, others yet were on the school grounds. Everywhere the air had a faint, choking smell. Children returned from play with burns on their hands and faces.
And then there were the birth defects. The New York State Health Department is continuing an investigation into a disturbingly high rate of miscarriages, along with five birth-defect cases detected thus far in the area.

In October 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave Dow 60 days (until December 10, 2007) to present the agency with "a good faith offer demonstrating its willingness to conduct or finance a remedial investigation and feasibility study and design a remedy" for dioxin contamination of the Tittabawassee River, and perhaps the Saginaw River and Saginaw Bay areas of Michigan. [19]

Animal Testing

Dow contracts some tests out to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). [20] Huntingdon Life Sciences is the 3rd largest contract research organization (CRO) in the world and the largest animal testing facility in all of Europe. Firms hire CROs to conduct animal toxicity tests for agrochemicals, petrochemicals, household products, pharmaceutical drugs and toxins.

For links to copies of a facility's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Animal Plant Health Inspection (APHIS) reports, other information and links, see also Facility Reports and Information: Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan. [21]

Violation Tracker

Discover Which Corporations are the Biggest Violators of Environmental, Health and Safety Laws in the United States
Violation Tracker is the first national search engine on corporate misconduct covering environmental, health, and safety cases initiated by 13 federal regulatory agencies. Violation Tracker is produced by the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First. Click here to access Violation Tracker.

Lobbying

Dow Chemical Company spent $10,650,000 on lobbying in 2013.[22] Nineteen out of the 33 (58%) lobbyists employed by Dow Chemical previously held government jobs. The top issues lobbied were Energy & Nuclear Power, Environment & Superfund, Agriculture, Taxes, and Manufacturing.

Support for WAVE project in federal approval and funding process; support for TIGER grant

Alclade

$60,000

Regulations for the implementation of methyl bromide alternatives under Title VI of the Clean Air Act; Implementation of the Montreal Protocol; United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Order granting objections to tolerances and pending requests for a stay: Sulfuryl Fluoride (EPA-HQ-OPP-2005-0174)

General pesticide regulatory advice and counsel related to registration review of key active ingredients, application of Endangered Species Act consultation requirements to pesticide registrations, regulatory implications related to recommendations from National Research Councils Fluoride in Drinking Water report (2007), agriculture nutrient policy, and deregulation of genetically modified organisms under the Plant Protection Act.

Dow Chemical and subsidiary Dow AgroSciences spent a combined total of $6,640,000 on lobbying in 2009. $1,870,000 went to 8 outside firms for the parent company; $120,000 went to one outside firm for the subsidiary and the remaining amount was spent on in-house lobbying.[23] In 2011, the company spent $8 million in direct lobbying. $820,000 was focused on the AgroSciences division, around pesticide spray drift, the chemical sulfuryl fluoride, and efforts to minimize EPA’s review of dioxin. $3.3 million has been spent in the first 3 months of 2012, with $350,000 spent on its AgroSciences division. [24]

Political Contributions

As of the first quarter of 2014, Dow Chemical had given $632,940 to federal candidates and groups.[25] This included over $100,000 to the Republican Governor's Association and large sums to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican State Leadership Committee.

Responsible Care - The chemical industry's sham "self-regulation" effort. Chemical accidents actually increased in number after the initiation of this program designed to help the Chemical industry avoid government regulation.